CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
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It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
Just in case anyone is after a new bike lock, H*lf*rds are doing a price match at the moment on Kryptonite locks. You may have to prompt them at the checkout because the tills still seem to ring up the displayed price but they will correct it if you refer them to their own web site.
Briitish Cycling members can get 10% discount on top of that. I picked up a Sold Secure Gold rated Evolution lock almost 40% off yesterday evening.
I almost always end up having to whip out my phone in there and show them their online price. I feel for people who browse in-store rather than online, they must miss all the bargains.
Funny you should say that. When I was in there yesterday I was about to buy a lock that was marked down on the display (and still a decent price, with the 10% discount) but I thought I'd just verify the marked-down price on their web site, and that's how I found the even better price matched price. As a result I was able to switch to a better product, for less than I thought I'd be paying for the one I was originally going to buy. Definitely a lesson worth remembering.
Who are they price matching against, other big shops prices, or any UK based supplier like Chain Reaction or any price on the web from Rose-bikes to Amazon?
No idea, it just said "price match" on the web site, and the prices were temptingly low (I did quickly check Google and couldn't see any obvious better deals - plus I had the 10% discount on top anyway).
To be fair, they do have a published price match policy: https://www.halfords.com/advice/customer-services/faqs/top-faqs/do-you-offer-a-price-match-policy so you can always challenge them if you do think you can do better elsewhere.
My missus always used to hold off shopping for stuff at John Lewis until Debenhams or HoF had a sale on (which was often) because JLP would automatically price match any branded goods in the other store's sale. Guess that's not likely to work for much longer, with Debenhams at any rate...
I'm almost ashamed to admit, on my recent bike build I was pretty bad and most of the components and tools I needed came from Amazon. Keenly priced, all arrived next day without delivery cost and on time. I did buy a chain and something else from Wiggle, paid the extra for postage and it arrived late.
I went to Bike Republic for tyres, which according to their website were in stock at the shop, and they clearly weren't when I got there.
Amazon is going to kill everything, which is a bit of a shame, but on the whole they do things better, which is the real tragedy (for all of the closing stores who won't adapt).
Amazon is a prime example that you don't need a flashy website to sell stuff. Trying to filter products or sorry by price is hit or miss. Its a big jumble sale, but as you say can be very keenly priced.
Ordered a George Harrison book from Biggars in Glasgow a few weeks ago. They don't have a delivery date yet. I could have got it in a couple of days off Amazon.
I'll probably get a Thunderbird harmonica off Biggars next month but I'll give them a few weeks warning for when I'm going to be in town. I think their Hohner deliveries might be a wee bit faster. Thunderbirds are £80 ish so I understand them not keeping a large stock.
We got a Yamaha Clavinova off them in about a week last year. I don't think Amazon would have beaten that by much.
@acsimpson I tend filter by Prime, and fulfilled by Amazon. That tends to get rid of most of the rubbish, and wondering whether a supplier is any good.
I have usually found the product I want in less than 90s.
I've been doing the kitchen too so time poor at the moment, and lots of electrical stuff especially has come from Amazon. No hour and a half wasted driving to B&Q or Screwfix often. Same with the bike stuff, no hour wasted driving to Halfrauds, or even further afield as my nearest lbs is probably 15 miles away.
The way I filter is totally opposite! I get the guilts about using Amazon at all and filter to make sure I order from a trader with a good rating.
@Trixie if the thing I want isn't stocked by Amazon then I would go to ratings.
Only slight guilt I have is not buying from bike shops so much, because they are dying. That said, it's a market, lots of folks hate Amazon because of its size, it got that way because folks like the service and convenience it provides. I confess I don't (won't) miss the high st much.
@Trixie: I get the guilts about using Amazon at all and filter to make sure I order from a trader with a good rating.
Amazon still gets a healthy cut when you buy through an independent retailer on the Amazon marketplace. Arguably for doing less than if they sell the thing themselves.
What I often do is find the item on the Amazon marketplace, then Google the retailer's own web site to see if their price there is as good. It's a bit like choosing the product you want in a local, physical shop, and then going online to get it cheaper (I think that's called "showcasing"?) Only in reverse.
If the price on the retailer's own web site is higher than their marketplace price then I assume that they're happy to pay Amazon their cut, and order through Amazon. Otherwise I order direct. The consumer contracts regulations give you pretty good legal protection on all online transactions these days (although it has to be said that Amazon's customer service is still usually better than most independent retailers).
The only time I use Amazon Prime is when they are running a free trial promotion. Even then I cancel as soon as the trial is up and running (the free Prime service continues to the end of the trial period then stops).
For retailers like Wiggle/CRC and Evans, try signing up with Quidco to get cashback on online orders. (Likely the other cashback providers also cover those retailers.) Quidco do cover Halfords, but the 10% in-store* discount with British Cycling or AA membership is more worthwhile.
* AIUI you can't use that discount for a fully online order i.e. one that is going to be delivered to you, you can place the order online as a click & collect - which is free - and get the discount when you pay on collection.
When I see the words "price match", I read that as, "we know that others offer this product cheaper, but we're going to sell it to you for more, in the hope that you don't bother to check".
And most people don't bother to check, so end up paying more - exactly what the shop wanted.
@neddie: Agree that you can't necessarily take these things at face value, but in my case I saw the "price match" price when I checked the Halfords web site, and then checked Google shopping. Halfords are price-matching Amazon, which is the best price on Google shopping (though not necessarily the best price that you could find searching more assiduously):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kryptonite-Evolution-Lock-Frame-U-Bracket/dp/B06XCP8Y8S/
Plus I had the 10% discount, and was paying with a gift card that I got another 8% discount on. So I reasoned that I was unlikely to find a price better the Halfords price match price, plus the further 17% total discount.
Anyone who doesn't check this kind of promotion really has only themselves to blame (a bit like those folks who assume that stuff in eBay auctions must automatically be a bargain - and then bid up past the retail price for the same item brand new, that can easily be checked with a few seconds of Googling).
@Baldycyclist, I also filter by prime. It works well if you know what you want but not so well if you want to browse. For instance when I was looking for a Soldering Iron there was no simple way on Amazon to compare a few leading contenders. Every item they sell is essentially a widget and can only be compared on widget like characteristics.
On Maplin it might have been possible to filter soldering irons by power, temperature, etc but on Amazon you get brand, rating and not much more.
I mainly try to avoid marketplace transactions as amazon make it far to easy to be screwed over. For instance I bought a miss-described item from Germany and Amazon were not interested in helping unless I was willing to pay to ship it back to Germany. By comparison Ebay/Paypal would expect the seller to cover the costs of their mistake in this situation.
@acsimpson: Surprising to hear about that experience with Amazon Marketplace. I would regard a mis-described item as being faulty (one could even argue that it is unsolicited goods) and under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (which implement Directive 2011/83/EU in the UK - so the same rules apply EU-wide) return postage should be paid by the seller.
I did have a bit of bumpy experience with Amazon marketplace recently. Again a mis-described item. Initial contact with the retailer via Amazon was OK-ish but the "return label" that they supplied had no form of pre-paid postage on it. I queried this and they said that it should have (it clearly didn't) but assured me that they would refund any postage costs I might end up having to pay. On receipt of the returned item they did refund the purchase cost but there was no sign of any refund of the £10.20 the post office charged me to send it back (despite me having advised them of the cost, and sent them a photo of the post office receipt). I suspect that they were unhappy that it was nearly half the cost of the original item but, well, tough.
I took it up with Amazon and they eventually managed to get the retailer to refund me the postage cost - though not without also mistakenly refunding the same amount against a completely unrelated Prime purchase(!) I could have pointed out their mistake to them but by this point I was close to losing the will to live. Call me a bad person, but I decided to spend the small windfall on beer.
@ejstubbs. That sounds about right but as my item cost less than £10 to start with I decided it wasn't worth the argument and outlay to get the refund. The mixed quality of marketplace sellers just seems to be another part of the poor amazon interface I mentioned above.
If I buy from overseas on either Amazon or Ebay these days I accept the risk that the item may be rubbish and I will have lost my money.
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